In order to raise productivity, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus uses one of variously sized wafer cassettes for installing one of variously sized wafers.
Generally, in a semiconductor manufacturing machine, the size of a wafer is decided, and then, a cassette suited to the size of the wafer is installed. Therefore, when the size of the wafer is different, the cassette and all the related parts have to be replaced.
Further, there is the problem that, even in development or research equipment, the size of the wafer has to be fixed. Therefore, there is incurred additional cost for replacing the parts besides the existing equipment, and therefore, the productivity is lowered, while the product price is raised.